Watching snowflakes slip out of the sky is like seeing a rare wonder that happens
on only the most special of occasions. Observing each one fall slowly on to the
palm of your hand or the tip of your nose, they seem perfectly alike. But on closer
examination you would find that, except in the rarest occasion, every one is different,
making it impossible for there to be one measurement for the diameter of a snowflake.

Contrary to the popular belief, snowflakes are not just frozen water. They
are actually a cluster of snow crystals. Snow crystals are crystals of ice formed
from water vapor condensing on small particles in the atmosphere at below freezing
temperatures. When snow crystals fall to the earth they often stick together forming
a snowflake. However, this means that two snow crystals could stick together or
three thousand snow crystals could stick together and both would still be called
a snowflake. Whether a snowflake is two snow crystals or three thousand depends
on the conditions that the snow crystals fall through. The speed at which the
crystals fall, the temperature, the humidity, the electrical conditions of the
air -- all these things influence the final size of a snowflake. These conditions
also influence their shape. A snowflake may form into a classical, six-sided shape
under the right conditions but it also may become a column, a plate or a needle.
Considering the possibilities of shapes and sizes that a snowflake can take, it
is true to say that it is impossible for any two snowflakes to be exactly the
same.

Because there is no uniform snowflake there can be no set diameter of a snowflake.
Each book and encyclopedia consulted about the diameter of a snowflake gave a
different diameter of what the number should be. Some books said that a snowflake
can be as small as.001 M. Some stated that it is common for a snowflake to
be.0254 M. Some said that a snowflake can be as big as.0762 M. Whatever
the case, a snowflake as small as a grain of sand or as big as the palm of my
hand is a white figure of perfection, a little miracle falling from the sky.